Kick cover units aim to make big impact

Broncos TDs were keys in last meeting

James Holt, from his “R4” position, four players from the right, the second man in from the kicker, ran down the field, weaved through a forest of Philadelphia Eagles, honed in on and then launched himself at returner Jeremy Maclin.

As he flew past Maclin, Holt stuck his arm out and hit Maclin high as C.J. Spillman ran in from the side and undercut the returner.

“He's one of those guys you come around now and then that you don't have to coach a lot,” Chargers special teams coach Steve Crosby said of Holt, who got a game ball for his work on all four kick teams Sunday. “He's instinctive about what he's doing. He sees things and makes adjustment better than most people his age.”

Holt, an outside linebacker on the practice squad until Nov. 3, and Spillman, a safety, have been active for the past two games. The two undrafted rookies are not the only reason the Chargers kickoff coverage has put together back-to-back outstanding games. But they are key components of a group that has for two Sundays melded back into the unit the Chargers had come to expect and perhaps taken for granted.

“We've been spoiled,” Crosby said. “We've been good at it so long.”

Which was why the horror of Oct. 19, the last time the Chargers played the Broncos, their opponent tomorrow in Denver, was so shocking. That night, Eddie Royal returned the first kickoff he fielded 93 yards for a touchdown. That and his 71-yard punt return for a touchdown kept the Broncos close in the first half of a game they went on to win 34-23.

The Broncos were actually the first of three straight opponents to have a kickoff return of at least 45 yards.

Just six times in the 220 kickoffs the Chargers had made since the start of the 2007 season had anyone had a return of 45 yards or more. Now, it had been done three times in a span of 18 kickoffs.

The letdown — and, really, it was just three big blunders, as the other 15 returns in those three games yielded a 17.9-yard average — did not exactly blindside the Chargers coaching staff.

“I was concerned during that stretch about our special teams,” head coach Norv Turner said. “We were actually playing at a pretty good level despite the fact we'd had so many changes. The problem is when you have that many changes and you have that many new guys, and you have new guys playing next to new guys, you don't know what to expect.”

Or, as Crosby put it: “(Waste) runs downhill.”

Hit by injuries at linebacker and making a change at nickel back required the Chargers to shuffle their defensive lineup and, by extension, their coverage teams. The Chargers lost outside linebacker Antwaan Applewhite, a special teams standout, in September. Inside linebacker Tim Dobbins, another stellar special teams player, has missed the past two games with a knee injury, forcing special teams tackles leader Brandon Siler to the starting lineup and off special teams. Also off the kickoff coverage has been Steve Gregory, who is now the No. 1 nickel.